What I Learned in Journalism

     This semester in journalism I learned about leads and how to write different type of leads. The Journalism teacher gave us (the class) different scenarios and we had to write a few different type of leads that were appropriate for the scenarios. For example, a scene-setter lead is when a journalist describes the setting of the story and makes you feel like you’re there when the action happened. I also recently learned how to write an article based on a the inverted pyramid. The first paragraph of an article consists of the most important information in the story while the rest is the details. Another thing I learned about is how to properly conduct an interview. I learned that the journalist’s body language is important during an interview to show professionalism and interest. You also have to ask open-ended questions to get the best information for your story. 
     Before Christmas, I had to do an assignment that required me to write a letter to a 5 year old girl, telling her that Santa Claus was not real. The assignment was given because we had to learn that no matter what, journalists must always be honest. Even if you have to break a little girl’s heart by crushing her fantasies.